


Memories of a Moment

by Mersheeple



Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [21]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:16:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25335247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: Severus remembers the girl so well. He just has to hope that his memories are enough to hold him
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58





	Memories of a Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Q_Drew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Q_Drew/gifts).



> This is a tweaked version of the story. The original was plotted out and so sad I cried thinking about it...lol...so I have this less sad version.
> 
> Q, hun, I hope you can read this at some point and know that...I love you enough not to want to write too much angst...

She had been there when the potions he had taken had kicked in. He had gasped in horror and so had she. He had made her scream, and then she had swatted at him to tell him off for scaring her. He had raised an eyebrow and, with an apology, and a stubborn twist of her mouth, she had transported him to St Mungos.

After all of the next few months, all the times he had sent her away, all of the times they had argued…she had still managed to get under his skin enough to request and be granted an Apprenticeship with him.

She was marvellous. She was incredible. She was mildly insufferable at times but she wouldn’t have been the Gryffindor Princess if she hadn’t been her. She was his closest friend and she was his equal. They worked on old potions he had disregarded when he worked alone. They created new potions together and she wrote up their notes in a way that was both eloquent and concise, a wonderful contrast to her old essays that he appreciated enough to send them to be published, under joint names of course, to various publications.

She finished her Apprenticeship and gained her Mastery in three years rather than four. He was impressed and saddened. She chose to stay at Hogwarts for an extra year and work as his assistant.

It was during that fourth year together that Severus had started to feel things. Funny things. Weird things he did not like to admit to. He had hidden it as well as he could, struggling on the two occasions she created potions from scratch for him and had squealed and hugged him when they worked.

One of the potions that she had created had helped primarily with the toxins from the snake that still ran in his blood. It made him hack and cough and vomit toxic black sludge but it kept him alive and healthier than he had ever been. He had managed to get his use down to twice a week but if he skipped the potion at all he was wracked with spasms and was completely useless. She gave him the recipe but he had chosen to let her continue to brew it for him, without explaining that it was simply because he liked knowing that she cared enough to make it for him.

That, and the fact it required ingredients he had little to no access to: Hippogriff feathers and unicorn teeth. Unicorn teeth could only be gathered by a pure witch or wizard and Severus had heard that she had also got an in with the Unicorn Herd and various Hippogriffs in the Dark Forest. He had been shocked at first and then had eventually realised that it made a lot of sense that she would be able to talk to anyone and any _thing_ and get answers. After all, she was incredible.

Severus smiled sadly now, lying on the bed in the Hogwarts infirmary, his skin pale and moist with sweat, remembering the day that Hermione had shown him her letter from the Salem Institute in America. Not Ilvermorny, not for her. That would have been a sideways step in her career. After all, it was still ‘just a high school’ rather than a University like at Salem. He had nodded and smiled and told her that of course she must go.

They had stayed in touch the first year. He had had a supply of the potions she had made for him and a collection of the ingredients just in case she was unable to travel back after her one year contract ended.

She had written to him two months before she was due to come back. No, that was unfair. It was only forty seven days, eleven hours and thirty two minutes before he was due to meet her at the International Portkey Office. She had been asked to extend her stay by another year. He had been so very pleased for her. Oh, so thrilled. At least as far as she knew anyway. She didn’t need to know he was running low on supplies for the potions.

She didn’t need to know he had started taking the potion only once a week, stretching it as much as he could so that he would not have to try to find the ingredients until she came home. Because she was coming home. She had promised. She was coming home for Christmas. He only had to make it to Christmas. It was only five months away. He would make it. He had to. He would see her again.

The potion had run out. He had miscalculated how much he had left. It was only Halloween and now he was here, stuck in the Infirmary, pale and shaking and sweating, unable to brew any of his potions even if he could stand up for long enough.

The door to the Infirmary opened and he flicked his eyes, expecting to see Minerva. She was his only visitor these days, except for Poppy. Minerva liked to tell him that he looked like hell and then promise that she was going to help, before getting weepy and hugging him awkwardly before leaving. It was a weekly occurrence. The person in the doorway gasped as she looked at him, running across to the bed and interlinking their fingers.

“You came back…to me?” Severus whispered softly, taking in her soft curls and her whiskey brown eyes for the first time in almost eighteen months.

“I came back _for_ you.”


End file.
